La Trobe University - Library: Medieval Music Database - Annual cycle of feasts of liturgical chant, liturgical polyphony and secular music of the late middle ages.

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Medieval Music Database

Che ti tova nasconder el bel volto
monophonic anonymous ballata

Sources

Rome: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Rossi 215, fol. 18v (1/1).

Facsimiles

1. Il canzoniere musicale del codice vaticano Rossi 215 con uno studio sulla melica italiana del Trecento, facsimile edition by Giuseppe Vecchi, Bologna: Università degli studi di Bologna, 1966. Monumenta lyrica medii aevi italica, III/2.
2. Il Codice Rossi, edited by Nino PIRROTTA, Lucca: Libreria Musicale Italiana, 1992.

Editions

1. The Music of Fourteenth Century Italy, edited by Nino Pirrotta, [n.p.]: American Institute of Musicology, 1960. Corpus Mensurabilis Musicae 8/II, p. 36.
2. Italian Secular Music, edited by W. Thomas Marrocco, Monaco: Editions de L'Oiseau-Lyre, 1978. Polyphonic Music of the Fourteenth Century XI, p. 24.

Text Editions<

1. CORSI, Giuseppe. Rimatori del Trecento, Turin: Unione tipografica editrice torinese, 1969, p. 1086.
2. CORSI, Giuseppe. Poesie musicali del Trecento, Bologna: Commissione per i testi di lingua, 1970, p. 344.

Literature

1. PIRROTTA, Nino. 'Lirica monodica trecentesca', Rassegna musicale, IX (1936), p. 321.
2. LIUZZI, Fernando. 'Musica e poesia del Trecento nel codice Vaticano Rossiano 215', Rendiconti della pontificia Accademia Romana di archaeologia, XIII/1-2 (1937), p. 69.
3. SESINI, Ugo. 'Il canzoniero musicale trecentesco del cod. Vat. Rossiano 215', Studi medievali (N.S.), XVI (1943-1950), p. 227.
4. PIRROTTA, Nino. 'Ballata', Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, I (1951): 1157-1164. [and supplement XV (1973): 440].
5. MARTINEZ, Marie L. Die Musik des frühen Trecento, Tutzing: Hans Schneider, 1963. Münchener Veröffentlichungen zur Musikgeschichte 9.

Recordings

Decameron: Ballate Monodiques de L'Ars Nova Florentine, Esther Lamandier (voice, portative organ, harp, vielle, lut (1980): Astrée AS 56 (FRA).

Text

Che ti zova nasconder el bel volto?

Donna, la bella pietra stando ascosa.
nessun p= dir quanto sia preciosa;
ma chi la vede s8 la loda molto.

Cum pi· t'ascondi, pi· desio mi mena:
donca non voler pi· ch'io porti pena.
ch'amor per ti servir lo cor m'ha tolto.

Translation

Why would you wish to hide your lovely face?

No one can tell how much a gem is worth.
o woman, if it is hidden from view;
but when it is on view, it is much praised.

The more you hide, the stronger my desire:
do not, therefore, prolong my suffering.
since love has placed my heart wholly in your service.
Text revision and translation © Giovanni Carsaniga

Content Approved by: MMDB Director
Last updated: Wednesday, 19 March 2003